We have been tracking the battle between the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for a few years now. It was looking like Go Daddy was going to lose a case that could set a precedent for other ip holders. The Hollywood Reporter published an article tonight in which they deemed it a “surprising court loss” for the Academy.
This battle has been going on for five years.
From the article:
In a cybersquatting case that lasted more than five years, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has suffered a landmark loss to GoDaddy with a judge on Thursday ruling in the domain registrar giant’s favor.
The Academy had hoped to win as much as $30 million and looked to be the heavy favorite given earlier rulings in the case, but will be walking away with nothing because U.S. District Court Judge Andre Birotte Jr. decides there’s a lack of proof that GoDaddy had a bad faith intent to traffic in trademarks like the “Academy Awards” and “Oscars.”
The lawsuit filed in 2010 targeted GoDaddy for allowing customers to buy domains like 2011Oscars.com or betacademyawards.com, “park” that page and collect a portion of revenue from GoDaddy’s advertising partners on a pay-per-click basis.
Read the full article on HollywoodReporter.com
Wow. Congrats to GoDaddy. Count me among those who thought GoDaddy would lose. But it wasn’t so much a question of winning or losing as much as it was the extent of damages the Academy was seeking, combined with their sloppy approach to identifying problem domains. The Academy had spent more money litigating this molehill than any conceivably realistic recovery, and this verdict is a well-deserved kick in the pants for their overheated counsel.
The Academy’s Legal Dept. earns a Nomination for Best Fiction Writing.
The Godaddy team has a right and ability to take any steps for provide Oscar-related domain names to the costumer or not.
The reason behind the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences failed is poor demands and remarks towards Godaddy and i think the Godaddy have any harm from this awful decision which taken by the academy.